THE GLOBAL ROLE OF THE CROP TRUST
In 1996, after long negotiations, 150 countries adopted the first Global Plan of Action (GPA) for conserving and using crop diversity. The GPA called for a rational global conservation system, based on the principles of effectiveness, efficiency and transparency. In 2011, the Second Global Plan of Action reiterated that call.
In between, the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture, which came into force in 2004, placed an effective, efficient global system at the core of its efforts to conserve and use crop diversity for food security.
The Crop Trust was established by Bioversity International on behalf of the CGIAR and the UN Food and Agriculture Organization to help support this global system in a sustainable way, through a Crop Diversity Endowment Fund. This provides long-term grants to safeguard collections of unique and valuable crop diversity held in genebanks around the world. Priority is given to 25 crops among those listed in Annex 1 of the International Treaty, of particular importance to the food security of least developed countries.
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Convention on Biological Diversity raised concerns about the conservation of crop diversity.
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CGIAR Centre – FAO signed “in-trust” agreements requiring centres to maintain and freely distribute plant genetic resources for food and agriculture collections forever.
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External review of the international genebanks raised concerns over funding priorities.
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Global Plan of Action adopted at Leipzig which called for a “rational global genebank system.”
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Genebank investment and upgrading plan developed with significant funding shortfalls.
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CGIAR’s Finance Committee’s Working Group on Long-term Resouce Mobilization endorsed IPGRI’s (now Bioversity) recommendation to establish endowment fund to support Centre’s in-trust collections.
Consultations with FAO, OECD countries, developing countries, the GFAR and NGOs found broad support for idea of endowment fund.
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FAO and CGIAR formally committed to establishing the Crop Trust at World Summit on Sustainable Development, Johannesburg. The website “Start with a Seed” was launched.
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The Crop Trust presented the case for its creation to the 9th Regular Session of the Commission on Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (CGRFA) who strongly endorsed the initiative.
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29 JUNE 2004
The International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture comes into force.
21 OCTOBER 2004
The Crop Trust acquired its legal personality under international law when Sweden signed thus fulfilling the requirement for at least 5 of the 7 UN FAO regions to be represented.
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The Crop Trust signed first long-term partnership to support an international collection with the International Rice Research Institute.
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The Crop Trust started work on Securing the Biological Basis of Agriculture.
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The Svalbard Global Seed Vault opened in a partnership between the Government of Norway, NordGen, and the Crop Trust.
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The Crop Trust’s Crop Diversity Endowment Fund surpassed USD 95 million.
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The Crop Trust and CGIAR entered into five-year agreement to manage and sustain the world’s international crop collections.
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The Crop Trust adopted new ten-year Strategic Workplan and Fundraising Strategy to raise USD 850 million to fund global system for the conservation of crop diversity.
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Governments and private sector organizations met in Washington DC on 15 April 2016 to make a joint commitment to combat world hunger by safeguarding crop diversity, a prerequisite for global food security.
The meeting paved the way for doubling the Crop Trust Endowment Fund – reaching USD 300 million. In total, half a billion dollars has been pledged towards the work of the Crop Trust, since its inception in 2004.
